Patent application title: HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE AND CONTROL MODULE FOR SUCH A HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE

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Abstract:

A household appliance includes an electronic control facility controlling
at least one appliance component of the household appliance, and a
connection adapted for connecting the household appliance to a network
connection line to supply the household appliance with electrical energy.
The connection has at least one interface contact, wherein electricity
tariff information is routed from an energy supplier to the control
facility, when the interface contact is contacted.

Claims:

1. A household appliance, comprising: an electronic control facility
controlling at least one appliance component of the household appliance;
and a connection adapted for connecting the household appliance to a
network connection line to supply the household appliance with electrical
energy, said connection having at least one interface contact, wherein
electricity tariff information is routed from an energy supplier to the
control facility, when the interface contact is contacted.

2. The household appliance of claim 1, constructed in the form of a
water-conducting household appliance.

4. The household appliance of claim 1, further comprising a control
module connected to the interface contact to establish a signal
connection to route the electricity tariff information to the control
facility.

5. The household appliance of claim 4, wherein the control module is
connected in series between the connection and the network connection
line.

6. The household appliance of claim 1, further comprising a programming
facility constructed for contacting the connection to allow execution of
an appliance programming via the interface contact of the connection,
when the household appliance is assembled.

7. The household appliance of claim 4, further comprising a signal
connection between the control module and the energy supplier.

8. The household appliance of claim 4, wherein the signal connection is
bidirectional.

9. The household appliance of claim 4, wherein the control module
includes a ripple control signal receiver to transmit ripple control
signals from the energy supplier to the control facility.

10. The household appliance of claim 4, wherein each control signal
transmitted by the signal connection to the control facility relates to
an electricity tariff from the energy supplier, said control facility
being configured to initiate an action selected from the group consisting
of setting a start of operation of the household appliance, terminating
operation, and adjusting process parameters during operation, in response
to the control signal transmitted by the signal connection to the control
facility.

11. The household appliance of claim 4, wherein the control module is
configured as a separate part from the household appliance to allow
retrofitting of the household appliance.

12. The household appliance of claim 4, wherein at least one of the
network connection line and the control module forms together with the
household appliance a plug-in system to allow detachable plug-type
connection of the network connection line to the household appliance
directly or through intervention of the control module.

13. The household appliance of claim 4, wherein the control module has
electrical contacts for power supply and data contacts for transmission
of control signals at an appliance side facing the interface contact.

14. The household appliance of claim 4, wherein the control module has
electrical contacts for connection of a plug of the network connection
line at a network side facing the network connection line.

15. The household appliance of claim 9, wherein the ripple control signal
receiver includes an evaluation unit, which filters a received ripple
control signal out of the network and/or decodes it and derives a control
signal for the control facility therefrom.

16. A control module for connection to an interface contact of a
household appliance and establishing a signal connection to route the
electricity tariff information to an electronic control facility of the
household appliance, said control module comprising a ripple control
signal receiver to transmit ripple control signals from an energy
supplier to the control facility:

17. The control module of claim 16, constructed as a separate part from
the household appliance to allow retrofitting of the household appliance.

18. The control module of claim 16, further comprising electrical
contacts for power supply and data contacts for transmission of control
signals at a side of the control module facing the interface contact of
the household appliance.

19. The control module of claim 16, further comprising electrical
contacts for connection of a plug of a network connection line at a side
of the control module facing the network connection line which supplies
the household appliance with electrical energy.

20. The control module of claim 16, wherein the ripple control signal
receiver includes an evaluation unit, which filters a received ripple
control signal out of the network and/or decodes it and derives a control
signal for the control facility therefrom.

Description:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The invention relates to a household appliance, in particular a
water-conducting household appliance, having an electronic control
facility for controlling at least one appliance component of the
household appliance, the household appliance featuring connection means
for connection to a network connection line to supply the household
appliance with electrical energy, the connection means additionally
featuring at least one interface contact for a control module.

[0002] It is known that energy supply companies use ripple control systems
to issue control commands to operating systems which also operate at
night, for example steel making or agricultural operating systems. Such a
ripple control system can be used to activate or deactivate suitable
consumers in the energy supply network of an energy supply company by
remote control. This allows control of the load at which said consumers
are operated during heavy load periods in the energy supply network,
allowing load peaks to be avoided during the main load period.

[0003] This allows the starting up of the household appliance, for example
a dishwasher, to be timed so that it is possible to take advantage for
example of the favourable night electricity tariffs of energy supply
companies.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0004] It is an object of the invention to provide a household appliance,
with which favourable electricity tariffs can be utilised in a more
flexible manner.

[0005] According to the invention provision is made for it to be possible
for electricity tariff information to be routed from the energy supplier
to the control facility when the interface contact is contacted. This
information is therefore available at the appliance and can be displayed
to a user for selection and/or used at the appliance for optimization
purposes. The contacting of the interface contact can be effected by
means of the connection means or other elements, e.g. corresponding
insertable units. Transmission of the electricity tariff information can
preferably take place in a wired manner by way of the interface contact
itself or in a different manner, e.g. wirelessly by means of
electromagnetic waves or by means of optical signals. The electricity
tariff information itself can be transmitted by way of ripple control
signals, WLAN, internet or the like.

[0006] Provision is preferably made for it to be possible to connect the
interface contact to the control facility to form a signal connection to
route the electricity tariff information. The connection means here can
be configured as connection port that can be connected to a plug of a
network connection line to supply energy to the household appliance.

[0007] The functional principle of the appliance-side connection port
corresponds to that of a refrigeration appliance plug that has the dual
function of featuring both network contacts for the supply voltage and
for earth protection as well as additional interface contacts, by way of
which communication can be set up between the energy supplier and the
electronic control facility of the household appliance. The interface
contacts of the appliance-side connection port can be connected by way of
data bus lines to the control facility. According to the invention
therefore a control interface is also integrated in the connection port
in addition to the network contacting means.

[0008] The control module can preferably be connected to the
appliance-side connection port directly or with a corresponding line
connected in between. The control module can thus be attached to the
outside of the household appliance and removed therefrom without tools as
a separate, retrofittable part. The control module can also optionally be
purchased later as a retrofittable part by the customer and integrated in
the household appliance.

[0009] The control module can preferably be disposed as an external part
not remote from the appliance between the network connection line and a
plug socket on the wall but connected directly in series between the
connection line and the household appliance.

[0010] The inventive appliance-side connection port with its interface
contacts can alternatively also be used during the final appliance
fitting as an interface for appliance programming. To this end a
programming facility can be contacted with the appliance-side connection
port so that appliance programming can take place directly by way of the
interface contacts of the connection port.

[0011] The control module can feature a ripple control signal receiver.
The ripple control signal receiver allows ripple control signals to be
transmitted from the electricity supplier to the electronic control
facility of the household appliance, thereby allowing remote control of
the household appliance by the ripple control system of an energy supply
company.

[0012] The ripple control signals received for the remote control of the
household appliance can relate for example to different electricity
tariffs offered by the energy supplier to whose energy supply network the
household appliance is connected. As a function of the ripple control
signal received the control facility of the household appliance can
determine a time period for appliance operation, terminate appliance
operation or adjust its process parameters during ongoing operation.

[0013] To achieve degrees of freedom in respect of the configuration of
the network connection of the household appliance, the network connection
line and/or the control module and the household appliance can form a
plug-in system, in which the network connection line, the control module
and/or the household appliance can be coupled to one another in a
non-permanent plug-type connection.

[0014] Further adapters can also be integrated in the above-mentioned
plug-in system in addition to the control module simply by plugging in.
For example a powerline adapter can be integrated for a remote display
away from the household appliance. Alternatively or additionally a
customer service adapter can be integrated so that the customer service
department can identify error states in the household appliance.

[0015] The control module can feature electrical contacts for the power
supply on its side facing the household appliance and also additional
electrical contacts for the transmission of control signals. These
additional contacts can in particular be connected to the interface
contacts of the connection port of the household appliance.

[0016] In contrast the control module can feature electrical contacts for
the connection of the plug of the network connection line on its network
side.

[0017] The inventive household appliance can be supplied to the customer
in a basic embodiment and in an extended embodiment. In the basic
embodiment of the household appliance there is no control module. In
other words the connection line plug is then connected directly to the
connection port of the household appliance, and no control signals are
picked off from the interface contacts of the connection port.

[0018] In the extended embodiment the set or appliance system consisting
of the household appliance and the network connection line can be
extended to include the control module, thereby allowing remote control
of the household appliance using ripple control signals.

[0019] So that the basic embodiment of the household appliance can be
fitted as economically as possible with the simplest electronic control
system possible, it may be advantageous if the filtering out, decoding
and deriving of a control signal that can be processed by the control
facility are not executed by the household appliance's own electronic
system but can take place directly in the control module. With this in
mind the control module can have an evaluation unit, in which the
above-mentioned signal processing can take place independently of the
household appliance electronic system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] An exemplary embodiment of the invention is described below with
reference to the accompanying figures, in which:

[0024] FIG. 4a and FIG. 4b each show different views of the control
module;

[0025] FIGS. 5 and 6 each show the network connection region of a basic
embodiment of the household appliance with the network connection line
plugged in and unplugged.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

[0026] As shown in FIG. 1, the household appliance, in the present
exemplary embodiment a water-conducting household appliance, features an
electronic control facility 1, which activates different appliance
components 5 by way of signal lines 3 shown with a broken line. In the
case of a dishwasher for example these may be inter alia a circulating
pump, a water heater or a fluid valve. The appliance components 5 and the
control facility 1 are supplied with low voltage from a network part 9 by
way of supply lines 7. The network part 9 is in turn connected to the
power supply network by way of a network connection line 11.

[0027] According to FIG. 1 a control module 13 is connected in series
upstream of the network part 9. The control module 13 is has a
bidirectional signal connection 10 to the energy supplier 12, to whose
energy supply network the household appliance is connected. The
bidirectional signal connection 10 allows the control module 13 on the
one hand to request information about electricity tariffs directly from
the energy supplier 12. On the other hand the energy supplier 12 can
transmit network information to the control module 13. The bidirectional
data transmission between the control module 13 and the energy supplier
12 can take place for example by way of ripple control signals, WLAN,
internet or the like.

[0028] In FIG. 1 the control module 13 by way of example features a ripple
control signal receiver with an evaluation unit 14, which can be used to
filter a ripple control signal out of the power supply network and decode
it. The evaluation unit 14 here can derive a control signal SE,
which is routed by way of a signal connection 15 to the control facility
1. Since ripple control signals generally relate to corresponding
electricity tariffs from the energy supplier 12, the control facility 1
receives control commands by way of the control module 13, on the basis
of which control commands the control unit 1 can start operation of the
household appliance at a predefined start time, terminate it or adjust
process parameters during ongoing operation.

[0029] According to FIGS. 2 to 4 the control module 13 is embodied as an
intermediate adapter that is separate from the household appliance and
can be positioned on the outside of the network connection region of the
household appliance. As shown in FIG. 2, the network connection line 11
is not passed in a fixed place into the interior of the housing of the
household appliance but is connected to the household appliance by way of
a plug-in system 16.

[0030] In the plug-in system 16 according to FIG. 2 the network connection
line 11 is plugged into the plug side 19 of the control module 13 with an
electric plug 17. The control module 13 in turn is plugged in a similarly
non-permanent manner into an electrical connection port 21 serving as a
connection means, which is provided on the rear of the appliance in the
lower corner region and is shown in FIG. 3 and in FIG. 6, which is
described below. The electric plug 17, the control module 13 and the
electrical connection port 21 are thus integrated in the plug-in system
16 and can be connected to one another or detached from one another
without tools, as shown in the exploded view in FIG. 3.

[0031] Different views of the control module 13 are shown respectively in
FIGS. 4a and 4b. Thus FIG. 4a shows the network side 19 with electrical
contacts 23. The corresponding electrical contacts 25 of the plug 17 of
the network connection line 11 shown in FIG. 6 can be plugged into the
electrical contacts 23 of the control module 13.

[0032] Opposite the network side 19 the control module 13 also has
electrical contacts 28 for the power supply on its appliance side 27. The
appliance side 27 also features electrical interface contact pins 29.
Both the power supply contacts 28 and the interface contact pins 29 of
the control module 13 can be connected to corresponding contacts 30, 31
of the connection port 21. The interface contacts 31 of the electrical
connection port 21 here are connected by way of the signal line 15 shown
in FIG. 1, for example one or more data bus lines, to the control
facility 1, while the power supply contacts 31 are connected to the
network part of the household appliance.

[0033] The interface contacts 31 of the connection port 21 can for example
form a single wire interface, it being possible for the interface
contacts 31 to be configured as a supply voltage contact, a reference
potential contact and as a data line contact.

[0034] In the exemplary embodiment shown the control module 13 is a
retrofittable part that can optionally also be included in the appliance
system or can be retrofitted into the appliance system at a later time.

[0035] FIGS. 5 and 6 therefore show a basic embodiment of the appliance
system, with the control module 13 omitted. The electrical connections 25
of the plug 17 of the network connection line 11 here are plugged
directly into the corresponding power supply connectors 30 of the
connection port 21. In contrast no signal is supplied to the interface
contacts 31 of the electrical connection port 21.

[0036] With optional retrofitting the appliance system shown in FIGS. 5
and 6 can be extended to include the control module 13. Such an extended
embodiment is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. As mentioned above, in this
extended embodiment the control module 13 is connected between the plug
17 of the network connection line 11 and the electrical connection port
21 of the household appliance. When the control module 13 is retrofitted
in this manner, the control facility 1 can only be adapted for example by
means of a software update, in order to control operation of the
household appliance correspondingly based on the ripple control signals
received.